Did a vero layout of the Merkin Fuzz today. Haven’t verified it yet, but it looks to be OK. Will update once I get around to build it or breadboard it.

Update (08.11.2010): And here’s my take on the Merkin Fuzz. Fitted a pair of strange chicken head knobs that I think I once got from Das Musikding. Overall I have to say I really like how this effect sounds. Using the texture pot and the tone pot on your guitar you can dial in several distinctly different fuzz sounds.

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Because the circuit is designed to work with voltages up to +18V the electrolytics must be able to handle this much voltage too (and with a good margin). If you only ever supply it with +9V you can use +16V electrolytics with no problem. That’s up to you.

Hi Harald, I already searched in forums like FSB and DIYstompboxes, even sent an email to people of catalinbread, cause I read that it was they who made the mod but they didn’t answered.
A question, why the electrolytic capacitors need to be 25V? Even working in 9V. I built with 16V capacitors and the pedal didn’t worked, just mute.

Hi Herald. Awesome site! I built this last night and it’s my new favourite fuzz. One question though, I used the TO-92 2N2222’s because that’s all I could find. I know there’s a 200miliamp difference between the two but is there any differenc in sound if using the TO-18 2N2222A cans instead? Thanks a lot dude, appreciate it!

I’m not exactly sure what you mean, but yes you need to orient the diode the correct way or it won’t work. On the 1N4001 you’ll see a gray/white band at one end and you match this up with the band on the layout. This is a polarity protection diode and it’s there to save your circuit in case you feed it a reverse voltage. The diode creates a short circuit preventing the wrong voltage from reaching any other components thus saving them but quite possibly frying the diode in the process. Check that you haven’t crossed the voltage and ground, and make sure the diode is still OK.

For general troubleshooting I suggest you have a look at R.G.Keen’s excellent debugging pages over at http://www.geofex.com

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